Big win for Mayo athlete at inaugural Connacht Athletics Awards
Mayo native Sinéad Diver has won two awards at the inaugural 2021 Connacht Athletics Awards.
A Belmullet native now resident in Australia, Sinéad was named Connacht Athlete of the Year – Female and Connacht Road Runner of the Year – Female.
These two awards are well deserved and appropriate recognition by Connacht Athletics for an elite member of Mayo AC.
In a relatively short career, Sinéad crowned a magnificent year with a brilliant 10th place finish in the women’s marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics last August. This made her the leading all-time Irish-born woman finisher in the Olympic event and the fastest woman to represent Australia in the marathon in 33 years.
In addition, her personal best 2:24.11 finish time in the 2019 London Marathon places her third all-time in the women’s marathon by an Irish-born athlete.
Eight weeks after Tokyo, Sinead finished 12th in the women’s London Marathon in 2:27:16.
The announcement for her Athlete of the Year award reads: “Sinéad Diver broke new ground for both Ireland and her adopted Australia when she took a magnificent 10th place in the Tokyo Olympics marathon. The Belmullet woman, who is based in Melbourne but still a proud member of Mayo AC, was the unanimous choice ahead of World Relay medallist Sarah Quinn (St. Colman’s South Mayo AC) and Swinford AC’s throwing sensation Michaela Walsh.”
Notably, the top three female athletes in Connacht in the past year were all from Mayo.
Elsewhere, Moy Valley AC athlete Keelin Kilreehill, fresh from his top six placing and team gold at the European Cross Country Championships in Dublin last weekend, was voted the Connacht Cross Country Runner of the Year, while there was recognition for Freya Renton of Westport AC, who won two national underage cross country titles this year and has never been beaten in a cross country race.
The John McDonnell Connacht Coach of the Year was perhaps the most competitive award and in the end the judges couldn’t separate Philip Finnerty for his Trojan successes with his native Moy Valley AC and Brendan Glynn of Galway City Harriers for his major impact in raising the level of Connacht sprinting, including a hand in two of the mixed relay team in Tokyo as well as coach to Sarah Quinn who won a World Relay medal.
The Fr. Kevin Ryle Award for the Connacht Official of the Year was shared between Connacht Council secretary Amanda Hynes (Swinford AC) and Athenry’s Iain Shaw, without whom no Connacht Championships could take place.
The Club of the Year was shared between Ballina-based Moy Valley AC and Craughwell AC as two outstanding clubs who are operating at the highest level in terms of athlete numbers, organising events, national medals won, and facilities built.
There was further success for Mayo as Conor Cusack of Lake District AC won the Martin Sheridan Medal for Connacht Thrower of the Year, Cian McManamon of Westport AC won the Olive Loughnane Medal for Connacht Race Walker of the Year, and Louise King of St. Colman's South Mayo AC won the Mary Barrett Medal for the Connacht Multi-eventer of the Year.
A panel of 15 experts voted for the winners and the awards will be presented at a ceremony on Zoom in January. The full list of winners can be found on the Facebook page of Connacht Athletics.